


Why is it always mummies?

by sharkie335



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Mummy (1999)
Genre: Bucky charges in without thinking, Imhotep won't stay dead, M/M, MCU and the Mummy take place in the same universe, Oral Sex, Using Stark as a battering ram, not a time travel fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-20 17:05:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkie335/pseuds/sharkie335
Summary: Coulson calls in Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes to go to Egypt - because Hydra has managed to reincarnate Imhotep (yes, again).





	Why is it always mummies?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lasenby_Heathcote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lasenby_Heathcote/gifts).

> The embedded artwork is by Lasenby_heathcote, and is absolutely gorgeous!
> 
> Characters from the Mummy are mentioned but don't appear, other than Imhotep.
> 
> Beta read by Theshadowpanther.

"What do you want?" Tony asked Phil, who had called in on the Avengers only line. "You've already got most of the team with you."

Phil sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know that, Stark. It's not my fault that Ms. Potts told us that you absolutely weren't available when the team got called out, and that by the time you found out, we'd already gotten everybody embedded in the Hydra base. I'm _sorry_ for the eight-thousandth time. In the meantime, I have something for you and Sergeant Barnes that requires your special knowledge."

Tony tipped his head on the side, looking carefully at Phil. "You have an engineering problem? You know I'm not helping SHIELD after the terrible misuse of my tech last time."

"No, not technology. How many languages do you speak?"

Puzzled by the seeming non sequitur, Tony answered without thought. "Seven fluently - English, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic. Enough to get by in a handful of others. Why?"

"Don't you speak Ancient Egyptian?" Phil persisted.

"Uh..." Tony thought for a moment. "A little bit. More familiar with interpreting hieroglyphics though. And even that - it's only for later eras. I spent a couple of years puzzling over them when I was bored."

"I thought you used some of them in your AI programming?"

Son of a bitch. That shit was proprietary for a reason. "One of these days you'll stay the hell out of the workshop. Yes, I use hieroglyphs in some of my programming, but they're not exactly true to the original meaning."

"Good enough. I need you and Sergeant Barnes to go to Egypt. You need to meet up with Mona Hadad in Cairo."

"Wait, wait, no. Bucky isn't going anywhere - he's still recovering from the last solo mission you pulled him for. And who the hell is Hadad? Is this tech related?"

Phil sighed again, a world of impatience in the sound. "Hadad is a cleared SHIELD agent whose specialty is Ancient Egyptian. There's a possible 0-8-4 there that is causing some incidents. They strongly resemble some from our records of the area from the 1920s. If those reports are even remotely accurate, she's going to need back up."

"So, I can go. But Bucky stays here." Tony crossed his arms and nodded firmly, only to be derailed by a hand dropping onto his shoulder. 

"Bucky isn't staying behind when you're out and you know it," Bucky said, good humor lacing through his voice. "Bad enough that Steve skedaddled when I wasn't looking. I'm not letting my boyfriend do the same thing."

"Bucky, your shoulder still isn't completely healed," Tony protested. "Besides, I'll have the suit."

"It's healed well enough for me to shoot," Bucky said, shrugging. At least today it wasn't accompanied by a wince. "Besides, from the sound of it, you're probably going to need me for muscle while you use that big brain of yours."

"So, it's settled," Phil said, startling Tony, who had forgotten that he was still on the line. "We're sending you a quinjet. Should be there in about forty-five minutes. Put on your dancing shoes, gentlemen. You have a plane to catch."

"Are you going to tell me what we're looking for?" Tony asked as Phil reached towards the screen. 

"Oh, didn't I mention it? You're going after a mummy that's come back to life. The relevant data is being transmitted right now for you to review on your way to Egypt." Before Tony could react to the ridiculousness of the statement, Phil disconnected the call.

"Well," Bucky said after a moment. "That's different."

"It's bullshit, is what it is," Tony said. "Mummies don't come back to life except in the movies. We're going to get there and discover that it's some sort of joke that they're playing on me to make up for the fact that they didn't call me in for the Hydra base."

"Does it actually matter?" Bucky asked, completely matter of fact about a completely batshit set of orders. "You're going stir crazy, I'm going stir crazy. We go to Egypt, we solve whatever issue it is that SHIELD can't solve, we take a few days to tour the pyramids or something."

Tony let out a huff of air. "I hate it that you're right so often," he grumbled. "Fine. Let me go pack the suit and a few other things. You handle your stuff. I think our go-bags are restocked from the last mission."

"They are," Bucky agreed. "As if I'd let that go by the wayside. They were restocked as soon as I got out of medical."

"Fine. Then I guess we're going to Egypt." Before Tony could turn to head down the stairs, Bucky squeezed his shoulder again, urging him to turn around. 

"Hey, you never know. We could have fun," Bucky said, brushing a kiss over Tony's lips. 

"Well, now you've cursed us," Tony grumbled. "It's going to be shooting galore when we get there."

Bucky grinned at him. "Like I said, fun!"

***

True to his word, Coulson had sent a whole load of reports to his tablet. As soon as they were settled on the flight, Tony opened the first one and started to read, Bucky hanging over his shoulder.

He didn't make more than a page before he was shaking his head in disbelief. "Coulson expects us to believe that a mummy from three thousand years ago was resurrected because some Egyptologist read from a book? This is pure fantasy," he grumbled, flipping through the reports. "FRIDAY, is there any actual data in these reports or is it all this garbage?"

FRIDAY's voice came from the tablet, a little tinny from the speaker. Tony was going to have to work on that. "Boss, I hate to say this, but there are multiple unrelated reports of the phenomena that occurred in Cairo at the time this supposedly happened. Hundreds of people were injured in riots, thousands more started marching across the desert and had to be rescued by the military. In modern talk, we'd call them 'zombie-like'. And there were definitely disturbances where this city - Hamunaptra - was supposed to be."

"No fuckin' way," Bucky said. "Mass hallucination? Drugs?"

"Apparently mass hallucination was the official finding of the Egyptian government," FRIDAY said. "But there are reports of similar occurrences in London happened about ten years later, and the same couple were at the center of both sets."

"Do we have names?" Tony asked.

"Evelyn and Rick O'Connell, Boss."

"Oh," Tony said, sitting back hard. Those names rang a far too familiar bell.

"Tony?" Bucky asked, concern lacing through his voice. "Tony, that wasn't a good ‘oh.’ What's going on in your head?"

"I know those names," Tony said, swallowing hard. "The O'Connells worked with British intelligence in World War 2, part of MI13, and my dad knew them. Talked about them. She was kind of flighty, supposedly, but he was really down to earth, took a lot to rattle him."

"FRIDAY?" Bucky said. "What can you get on these O'Connells - anything at all."

"Searching..." she said.

While FRIDAY crunched data, Tony thought back. He'd hated the stories about Captain America, because he was never going to compare. But Rick O'Connell - well, those stories had just been fun. Unlike Rogers, his dad had never painted O'Connell as perfect. He'd done a little reading on them when he'd had his Egyptian phase in grad school but hadn't done much digging past the public papers. Too busy building bigger and better things.

FRIDAY's voice startled him from his thoughts. "Reports incoming," she said, and she'd done _good_ \- there was a lot of stuff here. Some from the SSR, some from MI13 - including stuff that hadn't been officially declassified - a lot of personal writings. A _lot_ of them - too much to get through in the time it was going to take them to get to Cairo.

"Okay, I'll review it all when we land," Tony said. "Right now, give me the quick and dirty version."

"According to the reports filed by the O'Connells, on a dig in Hamunaptra, they found a mummy that had supposedly been cursed. There was also a team of Americans there as well, and they found something Evelyn O'Connell - at the time, Evelyn Carnahan - refers to as ‘The Book of the Dead’. She admits to having read part of the book out loud, and supposedly resurrecting the mummy. It killed all of the men on the American dig and was trying to resurrect his..." FRIDAY paused, and Tony could have almost sworn she sighed. He hadn't programmed that as a subroutine, he knew he hadn't.

"According to Ms. Carnahan's reports, he was trying to resurrect his lover, Anck-Su-Namun, and only the actions of Mr. O'Connell, her brother, Jonathan Carnahan, and a member of the Medjai named Ardeth Bey saved her life. The mummy was defeated when they found the 'Book of Life' and read one of the spells contained within it."

"Any chance either of them is alive?" Tony asked.

"Unfortunately not," FRIDAY said. "Mrs. O'Connell died in the early sixties, and Mr. O'Connell died a few years later. They had a son, Alex, who died in 1989. However, Alex's granddaughter is - "

"Let me guess - Mona Hadad?" Tony asked.

"Got it in one, boss," FRIDAY said. "She is the daughter of Alex's daughter and Ardeth Bey's grandson."

"Oh, you have got to be shitting me," Tony groaned.

"Hey, this is good," Bucky said, “Hopefully she knows stuff that isn't in the official records."

"Or she's locked into the stories that she was told as a kid, and viewing everything through that lens," Tony countered.

"Could be that, too," Bucky said. "But we won't know ‘til we get there." He popped up out of his seat and headed to the front of the plane. After a moment of speaking to the pilot, he came back. "We're going to be there in about ten. No point in getting worked up about it if we don't have to. Want me to blow you until then?"

Tony felt his jaw drop. He kept saying that he was going to get used to how blunt Bucky was about sex, even compared to himself, but it never seemed to happen. "Hmmm, thanks for the offer, darlin’, but the pilot hasn't paid admission to that particular show."

"Hey, Tom's busy flying - he'd never even notice." Bucky had the little smirk on his face that Tony always wanted to kiss away. 

He actually thought about it for about thirty seconds, but his days of having sex even semi-publicly were behind him. "Not right now, Buckmeister. But I'm holding you to that for later."

Bucky's grin grew wider and he slid back into his seat, every movement pure sex on a stick. "Call me Buckmeister again and I won't blow you for a week."

"You'd never last that long," Tony said, trying to sound confident.

"You really want to take that chance?" Bucky asked, one eyebrow arched.

No, no, Tony did not want to take that chance. Tony was many things, but stupid was not on that list, and Bucky was as stubborn as Steve if challenged. "Fine, no Buckmeister. How about Bucky-bear?"

"How about no?" Bucky said, but his grin was infectious.

"Oh, you never let me have any fun."

"Gentlemen, we have entered Egyptian airspace," the pilot called back. "I'm being instructed to put down at coordinates in the desert, 25.5616363 by 31.4187795, about 375 miles from Cairo."

This time it was Tony who got up. "Instructed by who?" he asked.

"Agent Hadad just radioed, sir," the pilot said, looking up at him. "Should I comply?"

"What's in the area?" Bucky said from right next to Tony, making him practically jump out of his skin.

"A whole lot of sand," the pilot said. "Some ruins, but I can't tell you for what. Looks pretty flattened from here."

Tony looked over at Bucky, who shrugged. Well, they might as well meet this head on. "Okay, sure. Put us down there."

It didn't take long to get to the coordinates that the pilot had, and he'd been right - it was mostly a whole lot of sand. There were some ruins, and a small encampment right on the edge of them. As Bucky gathered up their stuff, and Tony made sure that he had the suitcase suit, a young-looking woman wearing a hijab came towards the plane.

"Agent Hadad?" Tony called as they strolled down the ramp. "You're supposed to be expecting us?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark," the woman said, her voice low and rich. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you where we've set up a tent for you, and then we can go over what we've found so far."

Bucky and Tony exchanged a glance, and when Bucky shrugged, Tony said, "Sure, lead the way."

The tent that she led them to wasn't terrible by tent standards, Tony guessed, but still, it was a tent. At least it had a couple of air mattresses, so they wouldn't be sleeping on the sand. Compared to the last time he'd been in a desert, though, it was positively palatial. They set down the bags carrying their supplies, and Bucky changed out of his armor and into a lighter shirt. When Tony raised an eyebrow, Bucky grinned. "Too fucking hot already. Might as well be as comfortable as I can while we get the briefing out of the way."

Tony couldn't help but admire the way the light linen shirt highlighted how built Bucky was, but the sooner they found out what the hell was going on, the sooner they could go home. So, he opened the flap to the tent, and gestured for Bucky to go ahead of him. Bucky held on to one of his rifles, and Tony kept the suit, as they oriented themselves to the camp. 

There was a larger tent in the center of the encampment, and it was clearly the center of operations from the number of people coming and going. Tony didn't bother to check with Bucky before heading that way.

Two of the walls of the large tent were rolled up to let in air, so Tony just walked in, finding Agent Hadad sitting behind a large desk. There were several tablet computers on the desk, and one in her hands, and Tony made a mental note to find out how they were recharging the equipment out here in the desert. "Okay, we're as settled in as we're going to get," he said. "I've read what you've sent to Director Coulson, so why don't you fill us in on what you didn't tell him."

"Imhotep is back," she said, meeting his eyes levelly. "I'm not sure how they summoned him, or whose body he's inhabiting, but he's back."

Tony exchanged a quick glance with Bucky, who shrugged. "Okay, let's say we believe you," he said. "Why do you think it's him, and not somebody else? I mean, your great-grandmother turned stories about him into romances. It wouldn't take too much research for someone to find out what they need to do to make it seem like he was back. And according to Coulson's information, he was destroyed in the 1930s, when the oasis of Ahm Shere was destroyed."

She nodded. "His body was, yes. And I know that my family believed that his essence had been, as well. After all, his body fell into an abyss controlled by Anubis. But there have been..." She looked frustrated for a moment, her mouth twisted up tight, as if she didn't want to say something. "Look, Imhotep was amazingly powerful. He controlled the sand, the Nile, he could summon the dead with a word. I understand why you don't believe he's back."

"But all of the mummies at the Egyptian Museum of History came to life last week, and just... walked out of the museum. They killed three guards in the process and made a wreck of the storage areas. They seemed to be looking for something." She rubbed her eyes. "There's a SHIELD presence in Cairo, and they managed to cover it up. They only managed that because it happened in the middle of the night, and they got to the footage from the museum before the news did."

"I assume you have that footage?" Bucky asked. "I mean, not that I doubt you that there were living mummies, but you have to admit that's a bit much to swallow."

"I do, and I'll show it to you. The museum is closed right now - in the process of the cover up, SHIELD set a fire to the entranceway to explain why no one can get in. They also managed to destroy most of the mummies before they got very far or before they could hurt anyone outside the museum."

"Okay, I _might_ believe you that there were walking mummies. But you still didn't explain why you think it's Imhotep." Tony crossed his arms. This all sounded ridiculous. But having met two gods, he couldn't deny the possibility outright, and that was very irritating. Science was so much easier.

Hadad's fingers twisted in the edge of her hijab. "Because a sandstorm blew through Cairo, picked up a few of the mummies, and was tracked out here." She gestured at the flattened ruins at the edge of the encampment. "Hamunaptra."

"Hamunaptra," Tony said, voice flat with disbelief. "Hamunaptra was destroyed in the twenties and its location was lost. You expect me to believe that you know where it is, and that this is it."

"Yes," she said. "Because I'm not just related to the O'Connells."

"Right - you're Ardeth Bey's great-granddaughter," Bucky said. "So?"

"I'm a Medjai," she said, voice firm. "Our society keeps an eye on these ruins specifically to make sure that Imhotep doesn't rise again."

"I thought the Medjai were men?" Bucky asked, and Tony sent him a quick glance. He always forgot just how fast Bucky could read and retain knowledge - not as fast as Tony himself, but at least as fast as Steve. 

"We have moved with the times," she said, cryptically, before calling out, _"Come, show them,"_ in Arabic.

As Tony had understood her, he wasn't terribly surprised when three very large, _very_ well-armed men, dressed in Bedouinnative clothes, came around the edge of the tent to stand behind her. Next to Tony, Bucky's grip on his gun tightened and he moved so that he was standing slightly in front of Tony. He wasn't aiming the gun yet, but Tony knew if any of the men acted aggressively, there would be bloodshed.

Thankfully for all involved, the men stayed calm, their postures loose as they lined up behind Hadad. Tony recognized the facial tattoos from pictures they'd seen in the O'Connell files, matching the ones recorded on Ardeth Bey. After realizing that, he returned his gaze to Hadad, who was still looking at him, her eyes serious. 

Well, _shit_. This was not going to be the cake walk they had planned on. "So, fill us in, then. How was he resurrected again if your people were watching?"

The next two hours were surreal. It was one thing to know that Hydra was active in the area. It was another to believe that their roots went back thousands of years, and that some of them were buried deep in Egyptian soil. According to Hadad, they had used some sort of spell - she didn't think it was Egyptian in origin - to summon Imhotep's spirit and put it in a volunteer's body. What happened to the volunteer's spirit, she didn't say.

From what they'd been able to get from finding Hydra here at Hamunaptra, Imhotep had been summoned in order to bring forth a new army to assist Hydra in taking over the world. "Hasn't this story been done to death?" Bucky had muttered at that.

Hadad had smiled grimly. "It has, and we don't actually think that Imhotep is doing it. He's come back here, and he is below. I believe he is looking for the Shen-Ring, sacred to the god Huh. Huh was the God of - "

"Time," Tony cut her off. "You've got to be joking, right?"

"What?" Bucky asked. "What do you think he's doing?"

"I'm not sure, but I can't imagine it's anything good," Tony said. 

"It's not," Hadad said. "If he manages to find the artifact, he can go back in time, change the course of history. Of course, what effects that would have on the present would be impossible to predict, but I don't think we can take that chance."

"No, no, we can't," Tony said, echoed a moment later by Bucky. "So, you know he's here. Does Hydra know he's gone off the reservation? Why is he letting you stay up here? He must know you're going to try to stop him."

"Hydra knows. From what we've seen, the fight at the museum started, in part, as an effort on their part to rein him back in, an effort that failed. They didn't follow him here, and we don't know if that's because they're short-handed and unable to stop him, or if they are waiting to see what he manages to do."

"As far as us - Imhotep is not as powerful as he was when my great-grandfathers faced him. He is lacking his own body, and many of the mummies that were his to command were destroyed by my ancestors. He has the few he brought with him blockading the entrances to below, and we were hoping with assistance to get past them."

She sighed, and rested her head on her hand, massaging her temple. "If the stories that have come down through my family are correct, while the Book of the Dead was destroyed with the Oasis of Ahm Shere, the Book of the Living may still be here. That would be our best bet - there should be a spell that would let us banish him once and for all if I can get my hands on it."

"So, what do you think the two of us can do that your warriors can't?" Bucky asked. "We're just two more men, two who don't even speak the language you need."

She smiled a little, but it was pained. "No, but Mister Stark has a suit of armor, as opposed to robes. And you are a warrior, as well trained as, if not better than, our own. We are not sending you in our stead, we are asking you to stand by our side and help."

Tony couldn't help but reach out to press his hand to Bucky's shoulder. "Bucky, we need to help them," he said. "Even if it's as just two more fighters, we can't just walk away."

Bucky turned head to glare at Tony over his shoulder, but Tony kept his own expression steady. If even half of the reports about Imhotep were true, and even if he was only partially as powerful, they couldn't risk the Medjai failing because they didn't help. God only knew what would happen if Imhotep succeeded in turning back time. 

Tony could think of some terrible things that had been averted already - starting with those shitty Accords that they'd managed to dodge right up to another alien attack that this time they couldn't stop. He couldn't risk it. He just couldn't do it, and he tried to put that feeling in his expression.

"You know, you look really constipated when you're trying to be that serious," Bucky said, his voice light, but Tony knew him well enough to know that it was an act. "Okay, fine, we'll help. What's the plan?"

With Bucky's words, Hadad's shoulders relaxed marginally. "Thank you," she said. She then gestured at one of the men. "This is Butrus Awad," she said as he stepped forward, a large rifle slung over his shoulder. "He was the first Medjai to arrive, and the only one to have seen the body that we believe Imhotep is currently inhabiting."

He nodded gravely, and then in low, slow words, described a night of a sandstorm with no warning, strange lights and strange voices that he'd come to investigate. _"The body that Imhotep is wearing,"_ he said in Arabic, _"is young, no more than mid-twenties. From what I saw as the sandstorm came to a halt, doing great magics like that exhausted him, for he required many minutes to recover and start to move below."_

"What is he saying?" Bucky said, not bothering to lower his voice. "I don't know Arabic that well."

Tony nodded, his eyes not leaving Butrus's face as he translated quickly and roughly. 

"So why didn't he try to take him out then?" Bucky asked. "If he was so tired?"

Tony repeated the question in Arabic.

_"Because I was alone, and Imhotep was not,"_ Butrus said. _"I believed that it was more important that I stay alive to inform the other Medjai, than to die in a suicidal charge that would not have succeeded, even if it was the more honorable thing to do."_

It took everything he had, but Tony didn't say that honor wasn't worth being dead. Instead, he translated for Bucky, who nodded and murmured agreement. Butrus did not look particularly relieved by it.

"Do you know how many are below with him?" Bucky asked, turning back to Hadad.

"According to Butrus, he saw ten when Imhotep arrived. However, we don't know if there are more that he summoned from the ruins. There are definitely some priests that my ancestors didn't manage to kill the last time they were here, though probably not many," Hadad said.

"So, what's the plan?" Tony asked.

***

"Have I mentioned that I hate this plan?" Bucky asked from his position next to Tony. He was back in his body armor, and Tony was in the suit, wishing that he'd brought the mark XV versus the suitcase suit. There were Medjai of both sexes on either side and ranks of them behind them, all armed to the teeth with swords and guns. "We shouldn't be using you as a battering ram."

"Won't be the first time, won't be the last," Tony said, taking care to keep his voice light and trying to hide his anxiety. He wasn't even worried about the fight - it was going below ground into what amounted into artificial caves that had his pulse racing. "I promise once we clear the doorway to let you get ahead of me."

Bucky smiled for a second, his hands tightening on his gun before he turned back towards the dark opening. Just beyond where the light fell, Tony could see signs of movement, movement that he assumed was the mummies that Hadad had referred to. 

He'd had working as a team beaten into him by Natasha (literally) and Steve (figuratively), so he waited patiently for the Medjai fight leader, an older man named Hilal, who was standing immediately to Tony's left. When he nodded, the whole group started to move forward.

This was possibly the most dangerous part of the attack. According to Hadad, the Medjai had mapped out the entrances years back, and the tunnels opened up just a few yards on the other side of the opening. Those few yards were going to be critical, though, because they were only wide enough for one person at a time. This was why Tony was going in first, and he took a deep breath before pushing forward and through into the dark.

The gloom split in the light from the suit, and it wasn't one mummy - it was two, and they were on Tony as soon as he was through the door. He blew one into a wall with one of his repulsors. Before he could turn his attention to the second, a single shot blew its head to pieces, and he turned just enough to see that it had been Bucky shooting. 

He kept pushing forward, lighting the way for the Medjai coming in behind them. Hadad had not been able to give them any sort of map of what they might find past this point - it was considered a cursed place, off limits, and so the area hadn't really been explored since the collapse in the twenties.

She had been right, though, because he didn't have to go far for the narrow opening to widen and open up into a corridor that split off into separate directions. Only one lead downwards, however, and she'd been very clear that that was the direction they needed to go, so that was the direction Tony turned.

Behind him, more lights were coming on, brightening the tunnels as the Medjai turned on flashlights. Tony was very glad that they weren't having to do this by torchlight.

A hand came down on the shoulder of his suit, making Tony flinch, but a quick scan showed that it was Bucky, so Tony stepped to the side and let him get ahead, leading the way down further into the complex.

There were soft murmurs behind them but no sounds of fighting. Tony wasn't sure whether this was good or not. It would have been nice to be able to take out more of the other side closer to the entrance, but they were probably gathered close to Imhotep.

The HUD was scanning everything, FRIDAY highlighting things that she thought were of importance. There was definitely a heat source ahead, and Tony was tempted to blow his way through the walls to it, but he wasn't sure about the stability of the area. He did tap Bucky on the shoulder and gesture that he should go to the right at the next fork in the pathway.

It was widening in front of them, and instead of a long chain of fighters, they were moving as a group. Thankfully, they were all experienced, however, avoiding bunching up and making them an easier target.

They made their way down, until Bucky paused, holding up one fist. There was a strange skittering sound that sounded like nothing Tony had ever heard before, and over Bucky's shoulder he could see a bump in the pathway growing and shoving upwards.

Then suddenly the bump broke open, exposing thousands of bugs that immediately started right towards them. Tony didn't have any idea what they were, but from the screams behind him, they were definitely not good. He shoved Bucky to the side and turned on his chest beam, frying the little fuckers before they could get any closer.

There were thousands of them, and it took more than a few minutes to make sure that he'd gotten them all, even the ones that had tried climbing the walls. As the last few sizzled and died, he heard murmuring behind him, catching the word 'scarab' repeated about a hundred times.

"Hadad?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "Were those actually scarabs or something else?"

She sounded just as rattled when she said, "Yes, they were. Quick thinking, Mister Stark. Thank you."

That brought home that this was real in a way that the actual mummies up top hadn't. The mummies could have been real people in costumes. But bugs that ate you alive... ugh.

"So, not good, I take it," Bucky said, his voice soft. 

"Really, really not." Tony answered, and then they were moving forward again. He tried to ignore the crunching sound the scarab's bodies made as they were stepped on.

Slowly, the group made their way further and further into the ruins, not running into any more opposition. Instead of causing them to let down their guard, however, the tension just kept ramping up. The stiff way that Bucky was walking in front of Tony and the nervous sounds of the warriors behind him, conveyed without words just how anxious everyone was getting.

Suddenly the area in front of Bucky opened up again, and in the light from Tony and the flashlights, Tony could see what amounted to a metric shit-ton of gold, as far as the light spread. He heard Bucky's breath catch, but before he could say anything, Hadad yelled, "To the right!"

He and Bucky both turned to see that there was a group of mummies - were they called a wrap? Tony wondered a little hysterically - making their way forward, through the statues and piles of gold. Most of the group pivoted to face them, but Tony was a little paranoid about them being flanked. "FRIDAY, scan the mummies, and then start scanning the area for anything matching their metrics. Make sure they can't sneak up on us."

"Right, Boss," she said, and in the corner of the HUD he could see where she was projecting the entire area. 

As soon as he saw that there wasn't anything else immediately nearby, he dove into the fight. And it was a fight, because anything short of taking their heads off didn't stop the mummies - and sometimes even that didn't stop them. Plus, experienced fighters or not, they weren't used to working with the Medjai, and were getting in each other’s way.

By the time the last of the mummies were destroyed, even Bucky was sweating and swearing. This time it was Tony holding up a hand. "Let's take a moment to catch our breaths," he said. When one of the Medjai made a disgusted sound and started to push past, Tony shot a repulsor beam to hit the ground right in front of him. "Rushing in is going to get people killed," he said, making his voice hard. 

Hadad said, _"He is right,"_ in Arabic. _"Everyone check your ammunition, take a moment while we discuss our plan."_

She snagged Tony by the forearm and tugged, pulling him towards Bucky. She was followed by Hilal, and the four of them moved to the side. "Mister Stark, are you able to scan now that we're below?" she asked.

"Yeah. There's definitely a knot of activity that way," he said, pointing at what appeared to be a solid wall. "Movement and heat."

"That will be where Imhotep and his priests are," Hadad said, translating for Hilal. "But not necessarily where the Book of Life is. That was lost in one of the soul-pools, according to our legends."

"Soul pools?" Tony asked, not familiar with the terminology. 

"They..." Hadad hesitated, then said, "It doesn't matter what they were for. The point is, there should be several liquid pools nearby. Can you scan for those?"

Tony didn't even have to say anything before FRIDAY piped up with, "There are four within five hundred yards of this room."

When he relayed that, Hadad looked intrigued. "Could your AI scan for the book?"

"Gonna need more information than just 'a book'," Tony said.

She gestured, indicating something the size of a large coffee-table book. "About this size, made of solid gold."

"You've got to be kidding," Bucky said. "That fucker must weigh a ton."

"Probably," she said, and then Tony tuned her out as he watched what Friday was doing on the HUD. 

She excluded the first two within moments, but the third took longer. "Found something?" he asked.

"Possibly. There is a lot of debris in this one, but there is at least one object of the right size and density to be what Agent Hadad describes," she said.

"Okay, scan the fourth just to be on the safe side," he said, and then popped open the face mask to tell them what he'd found.

Hadad had continued to do a running translation of everything for Hilal, and he nodded thoughtfully. _"We would not be helpful with the book,"_ he said, this time Tony translating for Bucky. _"We will go and harass Imhotep and his priests, keep them from achieving their objective while the three of you go to find the book."_

Before either Tony or Bucky could speak, Hilal was pulling Hadad around into a rough embrace, pressing his forehead against hers. _"Mona, you can do this,"_ he said softly. When Bucky looked to Tony for translation, Tony shook his head. He was fairly certain that he hadn't been meant to hear that. 

It only took a few minutes to relay the instructions to the rest of the warriors. All but a handful followed Hilal towards where they believed Imhotep to be. The rest followed FRIDAY's directions towards the pool where they believed the book to be. 

By the time they got there, there was the faint sound of fighting, and Bucky and Hadad were both tense, frustration obvious on their faces for the inability to be in two places at once.

FRIDAY's guidance brought them to what appeared to be a solid wall, but when Tony looked at it through the HUD, he could see that it was a non-load bearing. "Everyone back," he said, once in English and once in Arabic. As soon as the area was clear, he launched one of his smaller missiles, and the wall simply disintegrated. 

The pool that the wall had hidden looked gross - black and filthy. Tony had to take a deep breath, because he knew that it was going to have to be him going into it to get the damn book - he certainly didn't want someone _not_ in armor going into that grossness. "Got it, FRIDAY? Let's make this fast."

"Locked on, Boss," she said, and he didn't say anything, because if he paused long enough to explain, he was going to lose his nerve. Instead, he stepped down into the pool, following the HUD directly to the large object in the middle of the pool. Leaning down, he was grateful to realize that he could reach it without having to put his head under the water. Grabbing the object, he pulled it to the surface. 

It was a book, and it was gold, and Tony didn't stop to analyze it past that point, wading back out of the pool. Only once his feet were back up on the dry ground did he let himself shake inside the armor. 

He hated water, especially dirty water. He hated it _so much_.

Bucky took the book out of his hands and handed it off to Hadad. As soon as it was safely in her hands, Bucky laid one of his hands on Tony's shoulder, and if Tony closed his eyes, he could almost pretend he could feel the heat and warmth of his hand. 

"Ah, ha!" Hadad exclaimed. Tony took a deep breath and turned to look at her. She had the book open, and her fingers were tracing over the hieroglyphics engraved on the page. "We were right, this is exactly..." her voice trailed off as she looked. 

Her fingers reached the bottom of the page, and her head jerked up. "We need to join the rest of the group. This will only work if we have Imhotep in sight, and he must still be in the body he's occupying. If they manage to destroy that body, HYDRA can try again."

"I don't suppose any of them have radios," Bucky muttered.

"None that work underground," Hadad said. 

"Fine," Tony said. "Let's move, then."

***

The good news was that they caught up to the larger party before they were able to destroy Imhotep's current body. The bad news was that was because Imhotep had a lot more priests than they had counted on, and the larger party had just been holding their own. Even with adding Tony, Bucky, and the warriors that had stayed with them, they were moving forward slowly, so slowly, and Tony could see the increasing panic on Hadad's face.

The longer this took, the more likely that Imhotep would find the Shen Ring, and then they were fucked. Tony didn't want to say anything, didn't know that he _could_ say anything. But once again he clearly underestimated Bucky.

Even without being able to speak the language, Bucky managed to get the attention of a group of the Medjai. Even with Tony watching, he couldn't explain how Bucky managed to communicate what he wanted, but suddenly there was a wedge made up of Medjai and Bucky in front of and bracketing Tony and Hadad, and like one of Clint's arrows it was cutting a path through the mummies and leaving destruction in its wake.

Tony wanted to pull Bucky from his place at the point of the arrow, where he was the most exposed, but he knew better. Instead he focused on keeping Hadad moving the right direction even as she flipped between pages of the heavy gold book and mouthed words to herself. 

The sudden cessation of fighting was loud in its silence, and Tony's head jerked up as he tried to figure out what was happening. He realized that there were only a few mummies left, surrounding a figure who was standing, facing them. The face was young, but the man's skin hung oddly. It reminded Tony of the bug-guy in the first Men in Black movie.

The man spoke, his voice carrying a low reverb, and it took Tony a second to realize that he must be speaking Ancient Egyptian. The mummies around him seemed to waver and then stand firm, and once again the fight was on. Almost immediately, he lost sight of Bucky, but now they had a line of sight on Imhotep, so he turned his attention to guarding Hadad.

One of the younger Medjai was holding the Book of Life, and as he watched, arms up and repulsors ready to blow away any mummies that got too close, Agent Hadad took a deep breath and started to speak.

She wasn't loud, but her voice carried over the sounds of the fight easily. Imhotep, in his borrowed body, turned towards her, and his hands came up as if he was going to try magic of his own. Before he could do anything, Bucky popped up in Tony's line of sight, charging forward, metal arm up. 

Tony wanted to scream, wanted to charge forward to protect him, but he needed to stay with Hadad. All he could do was watch as Bucky blew past the priests and ran into Imhotep. It looked like Bucky had just run into a stone wall, Imhotep not even stepping back. He lifted his arm, and Bucky rose in the air and then went flying back into the knot of fighting Medjai and priests. 

Tony let loose one yell of pure rage and fear, and then shot one carefully focused beam, just enough to send Imhotep backwards but not kill the body. He forced himself to stay where he was, eyes scanning the fighters, pleading under his breath with an uncaring universe. The fighting raged as he tried to spot any sign, any signal that Bucky was okay.

He only started to breathe again he saw Bucky climbing to his feet. He looked unsteady, shaken, but he was whole, he was moving, and Tony knew that Bucky wouldn't thank him for getting any more distracted. He forced himself to expand his attention to the rest of the fight.

Hadad's voice was growing in strength and confidence, but the few remaining mummies were fighting hard to get to her. Tony had to take off, hovering a few feet in the air in order to help pick them off as the Medjai were bunched around her, keeping her safe as she read slowly and steadily. 

It was only FRIDAY's panicked "Boss!" that caught Tony's attention and pulled it towards Imhotep, who had picked up a gold artifact and started to speak while holding it aloft. He couldn't be certain that it was the Shen Ring that they were looking for, but it was the right shape, and he couldn't take the chance. So, with another careful shot, he blew the thing right out of Imhotep's hands and into the darkness behind him. 

Before Imhotep could do more than glare at him, Hadad's voice rose to a fever-pitch, there was a bright flash of light, and then the mummies and the body that had been inhabited by Imhotep all dropped to the ground.

It took a moment for the situation to filter through to everyone, but then the cavern was filled with the sounds of whooping and celebration as the Medjai celebrated the destruction of Imhotep. 

Tony watched as Bucky went over to the body that Imhotep had inhabited, bending down to check for a pulse. Then he stood back up and looked at Tony, shaking his head. Tony didn't quite know how he felt about that person being dead - if he'd been an actual member of HYDRA, at least there was one less. But it might have been someone simply kidnapped off the street, and if that was the case, they deserved better.

Hadad had managed to get the attention of the Medjai, and one of them went to fetch the Shen Ring from where Tony had caused it to fall, carrying it carefully over to her. She nodded her thanks, and then called out in Arabic, "Let us go above and celebrate!"

As a group, the Medjai turned back the way that they'd come, with Tony and Bucky bringing up the rear. While they'd helped, the real victory belonged to Hadad and the rest of the Medjai, and they weren't going to try to claim it. 

Getting back above ground was almost anti-climactic in how little time it took when they weren't having to battle their way through the undead or man-eating bugs. As they exited the underground tunnels, Tony was surprised to realize that they'd clearly been underground all night - the sun was just beginning to rise in the east.

The two of them followed Hadad back to the command tent and waited until she'd finished congratulating the last of the Medjai leaders. "What do you plan to do with those?" Tony asked. 

She sighed. "They really should be turned over to SHIELD, but - "

"They're the property of Egypt," Tony finished for her. "Enough artifacts have been taken."

"Yes," she said, her face relaxing when she realized she didn't have to explain. Tony was all too familiar with the arguments between various governments and museums as to where they belonged. 

"Can you keep them out of HYDRA's hands?" he asked. 

"I believe so," Hadad asked. "Mostly by keeping them out of _any_ official hands. The Medjai will guard them."

"If all of your fighters are as good as the ones I've seen, then they're safe enough," Bucky said. Hadad gave him a smile.

"Okay, I don't know about you two, but I need some sleep before we head back to Cairo," Tony said. "It's been a long couple of days."

"I thought I was the old man?" Bucky asked, but he'd already turned his attention to Tony. Hadad smiled and turned to go back into the command tent, and Tony let himself be herded away, towards the tent that they'd been leant.

As soon as they were inside, he gave FRIDAY the command to collapse the armor back into its suitcase, and he stood there in his undersuit, stretching carefully.

Bucky stashed his gun in a corner of the tent, and then started to pull the bedding off the two air mattresses, making a pallet on the ground. "What are you doing?" Tony asked, unable to summon the energy to do more than ask the mild question. "I don't want to sleep on the hard ground."

"Air mattresses aren't big enough," Bucky said. "You're going to have nightmares if I can't reach you."

Tony took a moment to let himself realize once again just how well Bucky knew him. He _was_ going to have nightmares after having to wade into that filthy water and being held would help. Still didn't make sleeping on the ground attractive.

Apparently satisfied with the padding he'd created, Bucky started to strip out of his armor, and didn't stop until he was down to his boxers. That was enough to make Tony not care about being on the ground.

He took a long moment to study Bucky. He was dirty, streaked with dust and sweat and who knew what else. His whole left side, from shoulder to hip, was turning into one large bruise from his charge on Imhotep, and he was moving a little stiffly. He reached out carefully, running his hand over the bruise.

Bucky hissed, his skin pebbling with goosebumps in the trail of Tony's hand. "I thought that I had lost you," Tony said, his voice soft. "I know what we do is dangerous, but I - "

"Hey," Bucky said, turning to face Tony head-on. "Nothing happened. Bruises will heal. Let's get some sleep, okay? It'll be better in a few hours."

Tony nodded. Bucky was right - they'd both survived and had made it through with only minor injuries on their side. They couldn't have asked for a better outcome. 

After Tony had also stripped down to his briefs, they lowered themselves carefully to the pallet on the floor. It certainly wasn't Tony's five-thousand-dollar mattress, but he was exhausted enough that just being flat felt good. It only took a few moments for them to shift around and get into their normal sleeping positions, Tony's head pillowed on Bucky's right shoulder, Bucky's arm wrapped around Tony's back. 

Within moments he was asleep.

He woke himself with his own panicked breathing. Bucky was talking, his voice and soothing, but Tony couldn't hear him over his own harsh panting. It took Bucky's hand tightening on his back, the warmth under his cheek to realize that he was in a tent in the Egyptian desert in the middle of the day, not a dark cave in the Afghanistan mountains. 

As his breathing slowed, Bucky asked softly, "You back with me, Tony?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Tony answered, proud that his voice didn't shake or break. "How long?" knowing that Bucky had a better sense for time than he did by orders of magnitude.

"How long were you asleep?" Bucky guessed. Tony nodded against his shoulder. "About three hours, which is better than I expected."

Tony sighed. He hated to admit it, but it was better than he expected as well. "I'll get up. You should get some more rest, but I'm not going to be able to sleep again."

Bucky's arm tightened around Tony. For a moment, Tony's breath caught harshly in his chest at the restraint, but then his brain overrode his fear and he realized that this was _Bucky_, who would never willingly let Tony be hurt. Pressing a kiss against Bucky's shoulder, he started to sit up. At least one of them should be able to rest.

The sound that Bucky made was impossible to define, but he tugged Tony back down. Before Tony could argue, Bucky had rolled them so that Tony was on his back, Bucky braced above him. "You need more sleep," Bucky said, his voice steady.

"I'm okay," Tony said. Well, lied, because he really wasn't okay, but he wasn't going to admit that. "All I did was shoot my repulsors and pull a book out of filthy water. You were the one actually fighting mummies."

Bucky sighed. "You talk too much," he said, but then he lowered himself so that he could press a kiss to Tony's mouth, taking the sting away. Tony thought at first that it was just going to be quick, but then Bucky opened his mouth, deepening the kiss and licking along the seam of Tony's lips. 

"Oh," Tony sighed, opening up to what Bucky wanted. Bucky's tongue swept inside, and they kissed for long moments. Tony's arms came up to wrap around Bucky's back, pulling him out of plank position so that he was pressed against Tony from shoulders to shins. Tony knew that if it was anyone else, he would have felt trapped, but with Bucky he just felt safe.

Finally, he broke the kiss by turning his head to the side. "We shouldn't do this here," he murmured. "Everyone will be able to hear us."

Bucky chuckled and pressed a kiss behind Tony's ear. "So, you'll just need to be quiet," he said.

Tony couldn't help but chuckle. "You're insatiable," he said, pushing gently on Bucky's shoulder to try and get him to roll off.

"Yes, I am, but this is actually more about helping you sleep," Bucky said, not budging an inch. "You know you sleep better after a blowjob."

Tony wanted to argue the point, but he really couldn't. And he felt heavy, slow, like a fly trapped in amber, unable to think or move because of the exhaustion dragging at his limbs. He tried to come up with an argument against Bucky, but his brain wasn't cooperating.

"Are you - do you really want to?" he asked. "I really can just get up."

Bucky pulled back enough that Tony could see him roll his eyes. "There's never a time I _don't_ want to blow you," he said, an insolent grin stealing across his face. "If it'll also help you sleep, then it's just two for the price of one."

Tony's resolve was crumbling like sand before the wind. "I - yeah, okay," he said. "If you're sure."

"If I'm sure," Bucky muttered, pulling back so that he was kneeling between Tony's thighs. "If I'm sure, he says. Like it's not obvious how much I want his cock in my mouth all the fucking time." His hands were busy, reaching in the opening at the front of Tony's briefs, pulling him out through the slit and sliding his hand up and down Tony's rapidly hardening cock.

Tony's breathing was getting fast again, but for a much better reason. Even with the chance that they might get caught, he couldn't help but get caught up in the sensation of Bucky's talented fingers. Bringing his own hand up to his mouth, Tony bit down on the heel, trying to keep any potential sounds in.

Bucky bit back a noise, before pressing his metal hand against Tony's lips. When Tony opened up, he slid two fingers inside for Tony to suck on. As soon as Tony closed his mouth, Bucky's head dropped, taking Tony's cock all the way down in one long, hot, wet slide.

With Bucky's fingers in his mouth, pressing lightly on his tongue, the only sound that Tony could make was a low whine. He took a second to admire just how smart Bucky was, before he lost himself in the sensations flooding him.

This wasn't a blowjob designed to be long and luxurious. Bucky was clearly trying to get Tony off as fast as possible and take his brain along for the ride. Between the amazing suction and the obscene things he was doing with his tongue, Tony could feel it all the way to the tips of his fingers and his toes. 

He didn't want to bite down on Bucky's fingers - they had substantial amounts of sensation, considering that they were made of metal - but he wasn't going to be able to stop himself as Bucky was doing his best to make him crazy.

His hand tangled in Bucky's hair, but he didn't do anything to try and control the blowjob. He was enjoying it too much to do that. Bucky's other hand came up to cradle and roll Tony's balls, and with a whimper, the knot of tension that had been building in his lower belly untied suddenly, and he came hard enough that his brain felt like it was going to melt away.

Bucky sucked him through the orgasm, right up to the edge of almost being painful, and then slowly released him, ending with one small kiss to the tip of Tony's cock. As he moved away, he also pulled his fingers out of Tony's mouth, and Tony let out a soft groan while waving one hand in the air. "Gi' me a second," Tony slurred. "And I'll get you."

"Nah," Bucky said with a soft chuckle. "You can make it up to me later."

Tony wanted to argue, he really did, but sleep came up and clobbered him in the head, and the darkness reclaimed him like falling into a featherbed.

The next time he woke, it was to increasing sounds around the tent. Bucky was shaking his shoulder gently, and it took Tony a moment to put it all together. "What's going on?"

"Sounds like they're breaking camp," Bucky said. "Let's get dressed and see if they need anything else, or if we can go home."

Tony agreed, but didn't move as Bucky rolled to his feet. He let his eyes travel over Bucky's left side, where the bruises lingered, but look like they'd been healing for a week instead of however long they'd been asleep. "Come on, old man," Bucky said with a laugh, holding out his hand for Tony to grab. He got yanked to his feet and right into a tight embrace.

"Who are you calling old?" Tony asked with a laugh. "You're at least fifty years older than me."

"But you're the one lollygagging around," Bucky said, grabbing his pants and pulling them up, zipping them shut.

"Fine," Tony grumbled, starting to pull on his own. Bucky opted for that light linen shirt again instead of his heavier body armor, and it was really hard to pay attention to getting dressed when faced with that pure deliciousness.

As soon as they were both decent, though Tony felt like he would definitely kill for a shower and a shave, they stepped outside. Members of the Medjai were breaking down the other tents - the only ones that were still standing fully were the one that they'd been sleeping in and the command tent. 

Bucky eyed the busyness of the camp, and then ducked back inside to grab their gear. "No reason they can't start breaking down this one," he said as he returned to Tony's side, fully loaded down.

The two of them made their way to the command tent, where they found Agent Hadad having a conversation on a tablet with Coulson. Bucky stopped Tony from stepping into the line of sight, and they both listened as Hadad spun a tail of the ruins collapsing around them with the artifacts still underground. 

Tony glanced at Bucky, who nodded, and then the two of them moved forward. "Stark," Coulson said from wherever he was. "I understand that no artifacts were recovered?"

"Yeah, that's right," Tony said. "Agent Hadad managed to get rid of the bad guy - all the other mummies dropped. But then the whole thing just started to collapse. All we could do to get out."

"And this 'Book of Life' she used?" 

Tony didn't even glance at Agent Hadad. Such a powerful artifact didn't belong in the hands of SHIELD. "Dropped as we retreated. Buried under tons of sand at this point."

"Well, that's unfortunate. At least the threat has been neutralized," Coulson said. "The quinjet will bring you back to New York."

"Actually, it can just give us a ride to Cairo," Tony said. "I think we're going to take a few days, do some sight-seeing. I'll get us home."

Coulson's eyes drilled into his through the video, but ultimately, he shrugged. "Fine. You ended this with no loss of life, I guess you've earned a vacation."

"Nah, we were just the back up," Bucky said. "They would have managed without us."

Coulson shrugged again, and then the call disconnected. 

Agent Hadad was staring at the two of them. "You didn't have to do that," she said. "But thank you."

"Just make sure the Medjai keep those artifacts safe," Bucky said. "We'll call it even. Not like we need credit here - your people would have done just fine without us."

"Thank you," she said again. Around them, the other Medjai were breaking down tents and packing up supplies, but Hadad looked unruffled and calm. Satisfied. That was a better word.

Bucky nudged Tony with an elbow. "There's the quinjet now," he said, pointing at the sky to the north. 

"Looks like our ride is here," Tony said. "You need anything else from us?"

"If we do, we'll call," she said.

The two of them shook her hand and then left the tent, making their way to where the quinjet was setting down. "So, know where we're staying in Cairo?" Bucky asked.

"Pretty sure I own a hotel or two there," Tony said. "I'll figure it out onboard. You think about what you want me to do to you when we get there."

"I have some thoughts about that," Bucky said, and the two of them boarded the jet.

Behind them, the Medjai were making the camp disappear as if it had never been there in the first place.


End file.
